Everything
is triggered by something. Be it a fleeting thought or a prolific
image. A blink, a wink, a breeze, or a tsunami. Insult, injury,
inexplicable urge, or perhaps the distinct lack thereof. All
triggers. All triggered. Our goal is to be both conscientious
and deliberate in what we trigger; things like interest in
ideas, products, and services. That's our lot and profession.
We can trigger media attention that can then trigger a demand,
even genuine affection for a brand. We love to work in all
media; often creating triggers that redefine media. We've
been doing it, quietly, for a few years under the moniker
Think
Tank 3. To trigger a glance, an insight, a conversation,
a moment or a movement we think, plan, and do whatever it
takes; and then a little more. We're distinctly aware that
the work we do for clients is not about us, but rather the
connection between them and their respective clients. We're
hungry to do more of what we do in more ways which is why
you're looking at this, the first issue of Trigger.

If
you've ever been to Think
Tank 3 you know, that we believe all communication to
be a hybrid of art and information. You may already know that
while the words "advertising agency" might be an
easy classification for our company, we refer to ourselves
as A Modern Day Think-Shop™. Here are a few examples
of our work and a bit of press that we hope will trigger some
thought, or perhaps begin a meaningful dialogue.

This
is an ad written by Mark Twain for his first talk.
He had a budget of $150. Spent $100 to rent the hall.
$50 to advertise. For those mathematically challenged,
that's a full one third of his entire budget for the
talk, which is all he had at the time. This talk had
to lead to something.

It's informative, the who, what, where are covered
pretty quickly, then comes the reason to believe and
finally the time to show up. It's a perfect ad. Superior
to most advertising you've had to endure.

Here
is a man who knows the value of both advertising and
honesty. The books, the brand, the legend, followed.
If more marketers subscribed to this level of thought,
could deliver on the promise of their product, and
spent one third of their budget on advertising, Think
Tank 3 would already be the most sought after agency
in the world. Salute to Mr. Twain, who didn't write
ads like a copywriter, articles like a journalist,
and novels like a novelist. He just gave everything a good think, and then wrote. Of course the word "just" doesn't really apply to him.

The new Volkswagen work for the GTI was created by Crispin
Porter, the most celebrated agency in the US for the
past two, maybe three years. Their work for BMW's Mini made
us all smile and matched the personality of the product.
Recently, they resigned Mini to take on the much bigger
VW account. A gift in a sense, being that the person on
the client side responsible for buying into the work they
did for Mini is now the person buying the work for VW. Her
name is Kerri Martin. We remember being thrilled meeting
her a few years ago. She loved her agency and was proud
of the work. It made sense that when she took the larger
post at VW, she'd turn the account over to Crispin. Repeat
patterns of success. That's why VW wanted her, that's why
she stuck with Crispin instead of working with Arnold,
who was doing great work. That's why Crispin followed her--and
the money probably didn't hurt either. It's common sense,
right?

So why is the new
work for VW's GTI so bad? That's the word on the street.
People already didn't like VWs enough to buy them--price
and performance being the factors, not the advertising.
Now, they don't like what the brand stands for either. Hmmm.
How is that possible? Good agency, good client, what went
wrong? Well, case in point: past performance is no indication
of future performance. Not when you're hiring a financial
advisor, and not when you're hiring an ad agency either.

The VW work is irresponsible and only a little out of the ordinary, at best. The FAST mascot-driven work points to
funny half-truths about how a juvenile male's mind might work once he's found a car he loves to drive. Still, that part
is fine. Old fashioned thinking but fine none the less. Unless you're Crispin Porter, "Agency of the Year". Then there's
the celebration of stupid things to do in the rain as a guy screeches away to pick up an order of Tika Masala instead of
having it delivered. Ridiculous, on top of irresponsible which isn't surprising. Unless it's from Crispin Porter, "Agency of
the Year", and a client in need has come to you for best of breed thinking.

If you're a client looking for an agency, think about this: History and experience and compatibility are important, but
they're not everything. An agency or even one person's understanding and level of insights into societal behavior
patterns at the precise moment that you're looking for a new campaign might be the key to the right decision. You just
have to be open to it.

In
a moment of honesty let's admit that GRAND OPENINGS
are often not very grand. Grand is a lot to expect from
faux patriotic, cheap plastic, red- white-and-blue bunting
no matter how festively it's displayed across the front
facade of a shiny new retail establishment.

When something is Grand, like the Grand Canyon, for
example, it is magnificent; a word that doesn't really
fit in the descriptive language we use to talk about
stores. Especially when they're tiny spaces shilling
mobile phone service!

We recognize that it's natural to want to celebrate
the opening of new retail spaces by inviting people
into them. But that still doesn't make the opening
Grand. So, for the opening of our own lovely new retail
space in the West Village, we've chosen what we believe
to be a more honest and accurate term; humble. We
have a lot of work to do on the place but soon enough,
we'll be having an opening, a very very HUMBLE OPENING.